Erich Thanner

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Erich Thanner (born August 17, 1912 in Linz , † March 6, 1981 in Vienna ) was an Austrian journalist, editor and legitimist resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Thanner studied law (Dr. iur.) And worked as a youth functionary in the Fatherland Front . After Austria's annexation in 1938, he and several friends from university (including Friedrich Heer ) formed a Catholic resistance group in Vienna, which today is usually referred to in literature as the “Müller-Thanner Group”. On various trips abroad to France and Belgium, Thanner came into contact with circles in exile around Otto von Habsburg and ran a courier and radio service. On the advice of Habsburg, the group initially remained calm and tried to network with other resistance groups on as broad a basis as possible: Through the mediation of a Catholic clergyman, Thanner contacted the socialist resistance around the later mayor of Vienna Felix Slavik , including Roman Scholz and Thanner gained access to communist circles. In the summer of 1939, the group was from the Gestapo infiltrated after the failed assassination attempt Georg Elser on Adolf Hitler on November 9, 1939 98 members were arrested in total.

As part of the so-called “Legitimist Trials”, Erich Thanner was sentenced by the People's Court on November 23, 1943 to 15 years in prison and 10 years in loss of honor.

After the war, Thanner worked as a journalist and translator, for example for the bestseller Die Brücke am Kwai, and gave a. a. a volume from the estate of Alfred Polgar . From 1967 to 1976 he was editor of the Catholic weekly newspaper Die Furche .

Thanner was a member of the K.Ö.L. Maximiliana Vienna and son-in-law of Hans Karl Zeßner-Spitzenberg who was murdered in the Dachau concentration camp . He was considered a close confidante of Otto von Habsburg .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Radomír Luža : The Resistance in Austria 1938–1945. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1984, ISBN 0-8166-1226-9 , pp. 33 ff.
  2. ↑ Alfred Polgar: Dear friend! Signs of life from abroad. Ed. U. a. v. Erich Thanner. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna / Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-552-03311-4 .
  3. ^ Gudula Walterskirchen : Blue blood for Austria. Nobles in the resistance against National Socialism. Amalthea Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85002-452-0 , p. 111 and p. 306.
  4. ^ Evelyn Adunka : Friedrich Heer (1916-1983). An intellectual biography . Tyrolia Verlag, Innsbruck 1995, ISBN 978-3-7022-1868-3 , p. 222.
personal data
SURNAME Thanner, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist and legitimist resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Linz
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1981
Place of death Vienna